Unchained
The Dark Forgotten, Book #3
Sharon Ashwood

Review brought to you by OBS staff member Heidi

This is the third installment of the Dark Forgotten series that follows the supernaturals of the town of Fairview.  This book focuses on Holly’s sister, Ashe, and the guardsman, Captain Reynard, she helped keep safe in the last book, Scorched.

Ashe has taken her daughter, Eden, out of boarding school and has returned to live in Fairview near her family. Now, her daughter’s paternal grandparents are fighting for custody and Ashe has to quit being a slayer and prove she’s a good mom in order to keep Eden with her.

But, Alessandro refers one case to her; someone released a phouka from the castle.  It’s a rare monster that looks like a giant bunny and it likes to munch on humans (yum).

While trying to track the monster, Captain Reynard shows up to assist her since the guards are the ones that lost the phouka in the first place.

The two of them work together and are able to chase the animal into a portal to the castle.  But, they are being shot at by a vampire trying to kill Ashe.  They work together and take him out as well.

Ashe is trying to be good for her daughter’s sake, but when she discovers demon slime in her lawyer’s office (slime in a lawyer’s office imagine that?) he gives her the job of getting rid of it, if she wants to win her case.

Captain Reynard returns to the castle to discover the urn that contains his soul has been stolen and if he doesn’t find it, he will weaken and die.  So he must return to Fairview to start his search.  He goes to Ashe for some assistance.

After some investigating, Ashe and Reynard realize they are both after the same culprit, Tony the collector demon.  And worse yet, Ashe’s lawyer has been doing business with him; selling property to him to be exact, which is illegal.

And if that wasn’t enough to worry about, the vampire king of the east is after Ashe in hopes for her to bear a child for him, as Holly has done for Alessandro.

Now Ashe and Reynard are on a race against the clock to find the demon and Reynard’s soul before his time runs out.  But in the middle of all this Ashe’s daughter disappears and they must find her as well.

I must admit I was a little disappointed when I read the blurb of the book and saw that Ashe’s love interest was going to be Captain Reynard.  I thought that equated to this book being a snore for sure and there were so many other more interesting characters that could have done the job.

But I was pleasantly surprised and ended up really liking this book.  In fact, it is my favorite so far of the series.

It was great getting to know Ashe and her daughter, Eden, some more.  And I even found myself enjoying the parts explaining about how the old guardsmen were chosen and what kept them tied to the castle.  I also found the dark fae prince, Miru-kai, to be a fun complex character….a bad boy you can’t help, but be intrigued by and even like a little….shhh if you won’t tell I won’t!

This book was better than I expected and I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series, Frostbound.